5.
A report by the Corporate Director (Corporate Services) invited
the Committee to consider and approve, with or without amendment, the
draft Communications Strategy and instruct the Head of Legal and Democratic
Services to undertake consultation on this as set out in section 3.13 of the
report and report back to the next Committee meeting.
During discussion of the item, Councillor Edwards asked whether the
Council could provide an MOT test as part of the licence fee as he had been
made aware of a few taxi drivers who had recently been stopped by the Police
for not having an MOT.
In response, the Legal Services Manager (Litigation and Licensing)
clarified that her understanding was that taxi/private hire vehicles are exempt
from needing an MOT certificate if they have a taxi test certificate and it is
part of the taxi licence criteria that they submit their vehicle to the
Council's fleet services every 6 months for a taxi test. The only
exception to this, is if the car is also used privately, then the driver
would be required to also hold an MOT test certificate for the car. She added
that the Council’s Fleet services would provide an additional MOT test certificate
at the same time as a taxi test certificate for a modest additional fee if the operator
requested this but it was a decision for the operator whether or not they
needed or wanted this from Fleet Services.
She further clarified that she understood that the police database
only records information on whether or not a vehicle has an MOT certificate,
however if a taxi/private hire driver is stopped, by producing their current
Taxi Test Certificate, this should satisfy the Police regarding the MOT.
Following consideration the Committee agreed the to approve, without
amendment, the draft Communications Strategy and for the Head of Legal and
Democratic Services to undertake the consultation as set out in section 3.13 of
the report and that a further report will be presented to the next meeting
of the Committee.